Every year FWW gives an award at the Design in Wood exhibition at the San Diego County Fair. Our award is for design, and it is my chance to disagree with the state judges, who pick most of the other winners. I can’t tell you yet who I picked, but it’s one of the pieces shown here. By the way, the Best in Show winner, the FWW winner and one or two more will appear in the Readers Gallery in FWW magazine.

I like disagreeing with the state judges so much that I always take pictures of my favorites on judging day (this past Saturday), and post them in a blog. I try to put myself in your shoes (the FWW readers) and find the pieces that will inspire you most.

The show, at one of the largest county fairs in the nation, is put on by the San Diego Fine Woodworkers Association, which is the biggest woodworking club in the U.S., numbering over 1,000 members. This year the show drew 374 stellar pieces—from furniture to carvings, marquetry, intarsia, musical instruments, canoes, turnings, and more--from 18 states.

I always combine my trip with a photo shoot for the magazine, and this year I drove up to L.A. to shoot an article with Nick Offerman, from the NBC comedy Parks & Rec. I had a blast hanging out with Nick. When he heard about the show, he asked if he could tag along. Nick has been building furniture for many years but had never been to a furniture show.

The first thing he said when he walked in the door is, “I’m gonna cry,” which was great coming from this bearded, burly guy. When he met Bob Stevenson, who has been organizing the show for 26 years, Nick said, “You’re doing the Lord’s work.” Amen to that.

By the way, if you post a comment here, let me know if you live in the San Diego area. I have 5 free tickets to the Fair to give away, and I'll pick someone at random.

Comments (6)

AsaC writes: JQL--Sorry for the delay. Jennifer Anderson told me she designed the carving in RhinoCAM, based on pleated fabric, and did it with a CNC. Not sure how she colored it, though it seems almost anything would work, with a quick sanding to clean up the flat areas.
Posted: 3:31 pm on June 21st

mfate writes: Seems like every year I miss two events. One is the Inianaplois 500. For some reason I keep thinking it is on Memorial day. So, I'm a day late on that one. The other event is the Del Mar Fair. Let me know if those tickets are still available, I'd love to go.
Posted: 10:39 pm on June 14th

Robert12 writes: The San Diego Design in Wood Exhibition is a GREAT event. Thousands of people see the exibit every year and it is a great event to promote woodworking, furniture design and the all around skill of working with wood and other materials. Because so many schools are struggling with budget problems often their woodworking programs are the first to be eliminated to save money. Public school students go through 12 years of schooling and are never exposed to courses that promote any practical application of skills. A good woodworking progarm in the schools is a effective and fun way of allowing the students to put the information they learn in their academic classes ( math, reading, science ) into practical application. This practical application reinforces those all skills used. The local San Diego State University also has a great Furniture Design and Woodworking program www.sdsufurniture.com .